Electricians: Any thoughts or experiance with surface mounted grounding systems?

Recommendations?

I'm just starting on an old house, (still at the mapping/tagging stage) and it looks like a lot of the circuits are not grounded. Haven't gotten to the design stage yet, but considering replacing home runs in some sections to get a ground to the series, and then linking the remaining outlets in the series to the ground from the wall surface via the newly grounded outlet.

Depends on what conductor was initially installed. Two conductors cannot be turned into three, pulling new home runs has no effect if devices are wired w/two wire. If it's ragwire (cloth insulation) that should be ripped out anyway, same if it's aluminum though some disagree.

My mistake, overlooked surface mounting, do you mean wiremold? It's a method, looks awful & prone to get in the way/damaged, reduces resale value. If you are doing it, do it right, if not fake it and sell it as is.

If the house is very old, I would rip out all the wiring and panels and re-wire it to modern building codes. If not, then you may not have to replace all the wiring, but you will probably need to add circuits and modernize the wiring. Many old homes have 14-gauge wiring for the majority of branch circuits. 14-gauge wiring is only capable of handing 15 amps safely, and that is not even for a continuous load which is defined as anything that runs for three hours or more at a time. You have to de-rate the wiring by 20 percent for that, meaning a 15 amp continuous load requires at least a 12-gauge circuit, and if the load is more than 50 or 60 feet from the panel, you will have to upsize the wire another gauge to 10 gauge. !2-gauge is what you normally need for a 20 amp circuit. That is the norm now for household branch circuits, and using a 10-gauge homerun is fine if you are setting up lighting and receptacle circuits where you have more than one room on a circuit. I would use that for the dedicated circuit you will need for the refrigerator, washing machine and most other 120-volt appliances. You will need 10 or 8-gauge for an electric water heater, and six or four gauge for an electric range. You need a ground wire for all circuits. Especially for ground fault circuit interrupter or GFCI receptacles which are now required within three feet of a sink or any other place where they could be splashed with water. All codes require a ground wire, which in a residence is generally the same size as the hot and neutral conductors, or at most, one size smaller. I would use a ground wire the same size as the current carrying conductors, because for grounding to work, fault current must have as low impedance path to ground as possible, otherwise you or family member will be the ground. If an unground wire contacts the frame or case of an appliance, and there is no path to ground, you or a family member can be electrocuted. All panels, except the main panel where the power enters the house, must have separate bus bars for the neutral and the ground wires, with the neutral bus being isolated from the panel enclosure while the ground bus bar must be bonded to it. At the main panel, and only the main panel, the neutral and ground bus bars must be bonded or tied together, and the system ground rod must be tied into both at that point. I have been working as an electrician in the marine, industrial and commercial sectors for eight years. I advise you to bring in a licensed electrician who knows the state and local electrical codes. The work will have to be inspected if you are going to re-wire a house for safety reasons. I would not do cut rate work on the wiring, it's dangerous and can create huge problems for you later with the insurance company too.

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If the house is very old, I would rip out all the wiring and panels and re-wire it to modern building codes. If not, then you may not have to replace all the wiring, but you will probably need to add circuits and modernize the wiring. Many old homes have 14-gauge wiring for the majority of branch circuits. 14-gauge wiring is only capable of handing 15 amps safely, and that is not even for a continuous load which is defined as anything that runs for three hours or more at a time. You have to de-rate the wiring by 20 percent for that, meaning a 15 amp continuous load requires at least a 12-gauge circuit, and if the load is more than 50 or 60 feet from the panel, you will have to upsize the wire another gauge to 10 gauge. !2-gauge is what you normally need for a 20 amp circuit. That is the norm now for household branch circuits, and using a 10-gauge homerun is fine if you are setting up lighting and receptacle circuits where you have more than one room on a circuit. I would use that for the dedicated circuit you will need for the refrigerator, washing machine and most other 120-volt appliances. You will need 10 or 8-gauge for an electric water heater, and six or four gauge for an electric range. You need a ground wire for all circuits. Especially for ground fault circuit interrupter or GFCI receptacles which are now required within three feet of a sink or any other place where they could be splashed with water. All codes require a ground wire, which in a residence is generally the same size as the hot and neutral conductors, or at most, one size smaller. I would use a ground wire the same size as the current carrying conductors, because for grounding to work, fault current must have as low impedance path to ground as possible, otherwise you or family member will be the ground. If an unground wire contacts the frame or case of an appliance, and there is no path to ground, you or a family member can be electrocuted. All panels, except the main panel where the power enters the house, must have separate bus bars for the neutral and the ground wires, with the neutral bus being isolated from the panel enclosure while the ground bus bar must be bonded to it. At the main panel, and only the main panel, the neutral and ground bus bars must be bonded or tied together, and the system ground rod must be tied into both at that point. I have been working as an electrician in the marine, industrial and commercial sectors for eight years. I advise you to bring in a licensed electrician who knows the state and local electrical codes. The work will have to be inspected if you are going to re-wire a house for safety reasons. I would not do cut rate work on the wiring, it's dangerous and can create huge problems for you later with the insurance company too.

Just spent a couple hours detailing the project and my log-in expired. Usually when this happens I just re-log in and the post is made. Now there is a circular cluster-f. New feature?

The post was typed directly into the SF reply window, and I've left that window (maintaining the contact?) open on my computer. Is the post still in progress somehow? Can it be made to appear by a mod?

Did the total rewire, except for some modern sections which were thoroughly checked.

Only used surface mounted systems for two light fixture runs, after wiring conventially to the switches.

The surface mounted system is 'track wiring' from Lowe's. I modified by leaving the wire sheathed as it was only #14. The fittings were made in a different year from the tubing and so required some jig and file work, but came out well.
Thanks for your advice, gentlemen.

Good to hear you finished your project. I found myself in the same boat when I bought my current 100+ year old house. Older wiring, especially that where people randomly add is scary. We upgraded from 60A to 200A service and pulled some 1500 feet of copper, along with adding cat5 cable at every outlet just so it is available. 12ga to all outlets and 14ga to all lighting fixtures. Hopefully you don't need to run all new plumbing pipes as well like I did.